Monday, January 19, 2015

A Variety of Topics

Well, I was going to post last night, but our power went out at 11:30 and, well, it just seemed like a good reason to call it a night. The kids were still up, so we all made our way to bed with the help of the modern day oil lamp......the cell phone glow. Not quite as quaint or "oil painting worthy" as say Laura Ingalls lighting the wintry path to the barn with her lantern for the pre-dawn milking, but still...you work with what you have and we were fresh out of kerosene.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but Davis and I have a strong dependency on our white noise machine for a good night's sleep. I would even go so far to say that it is an addiction and we need help. We nap with it, travel with it, and will even sit straight up in bed from a dead sleep if it goes off during the night due to a power disturbance. Yeah, it's really ridiculous.

Well, since the white noise maker requires electricity and all, I went to bed, but sleep just would not come. I needed my fan noise. It was so quiet. Too quiet. I could only hear the sound of Davis breathing in and out......as he'd apparently quickly worked through the 12 steps of white noise addiction and was over there sleeping like a champ. I'd apparently taken for granted the multitude of "breathing" sins that my white noise covers nightly.

You know how it is when you can't sleep. You check the time and start talking to yourself......"Ok, if I fell asleep right now, I'd get 6 hours." Then, you start to think about all the things you have to do the next day and how miserable the lack of sleep will make it. Panic starts to set in....which only serves to aggravate the problem. You count down hourly....all the way to......"Ok.....two hours. If I fall asleep right now and don't wash my hair, I can get two hours. I can make it on that if I have a Mountain Dew for breakfast, put my head on my desk at lunch, and don't go to the gym."

Thankfully, I didn't get down to that point. After a couple hours of counting Davis' rate of respiration as opposed to sheep..... the power came back on......as well as the lights we'd forgotten to turn off....the printer which started printing......the cordless phone and oven which commenced their beeping.....the charging Kindle which lit up our room.....the heater that went to humming.....but, above all, the sound of my white noise.....well, that was just music to my ears. I drifted right off to sleep......like a big, overgrown baby with a pacifier.

So, there's that.

Anyway, Davis had his birthday this weekend. Blair came home to help celebrate and, of course, she made him a cake. I've never even been a big fan of birthday cake, but this cake was delicious! She doubled the flavorings in the icing. Yum. It was also completely covered with sprinkles by way of a rolling technique that she used. And while it was so pretty, the only drawback to the whole thing is that I will have nonpareils rolling around on my floors until Jesus returns.

As is customary, the birthday boy chose where he wanted to eat and he opted for a fish camp. "Are you sure that's where you want to go?"......we all asked while trying to hide the curl in our lips. We hoped we could steer him in the direction of a good, marbled steak or maybe a place that would call for us getting all dressed up, but.....no.....nothing doing...... that's what he wanted and so it came to be.

And Davis is quite possibly the most difficult person to buy presents for.......with the closest competitor being his father. Undoubtedly, it is genetic. We all have those people in our lives. Those people, who get secretly deposited back into the pot when the family draws names for Christmas. "No, not him again!.....I had him last year. It's someone else's turn to deal with that."

Yeah.....Davis is that person. But, we did the best we could for someone who never wants anything. He was happy with his gifts.....I mean, if we had to get him something.

And we couldn't have ordered more perfect weather for his birthday. It's been so beautiful here for the last few days! Sunny and upper 60's.....so we had a great weekend. A trip to the country. Walking at the lake. Caught a movie. Took a day trip. Some of us went hiking.......and, by some, I mean....not me.

We had a good time being together and celebrating one of the most selfless, hardest working people we know.

My Davis is nothing if not practical, so we gave him a Carhartt gear bag (he loves all things Carhartt), a devotional book, a computer lap desk, and a pair of waterproof socks he wanted to try for working outdoors on wet days. Not very exciting to me, but he was happy. :) Good luck with your husband!

I laughed at the little balls rolling around your house. I only allow those out once a year for decorating Christmas cookies and I still find them months later! I need white noise to fall asleep too. Maybe a battery operated machine would be a good gift for your husband, but useful for you too!! :)

Happy Birthday Davis! I'm a January b'day gal myself! Ahhhh white noise, the good old fan for me. I had to laugh when you said about the power being off! Me too! Have a wonderful day Joni, Kathleen in Az